Culture Study Podcast

This is not an episode about whether or not you should delete your social media accounts — we've had that conversation, and we'll keep having that conversation. Instead, this is an episode about all the weird habits we've developed around posting: posting on vacation, posting (or not posting) when sick or on leave, posting about your everyday life to your 200 followers like you're an influencer. It's about what compelled us to start posting in the first place — all the small pleasures of knowing things about people — and how those pleasures have been wrung out of the process. Social media taught us a different way of telling the story of our lives. But now those stories feel dystopian and uncanny. Is it the end of posting as we knew it? Kathryn Jezer-Morton, author of the fantastic new book The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything, joins the pod to work through these questions and more. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Taking care of your health just got…

It feels like a real symptom of the modern age that an article of clothing can just start... following you around online. There it is, in your Instagram feed (again, and again, and again). But it's also there in between paragraphs while you're reading the New York Times, or suggesting you click while you're sifting through your Buy Nothing group on Facebook, or accosting you every tenth video on TikTok. It'd be one thing if these things were cute... but so many of them feel like they're trying to make fetch (or a barrel leg) happen. I'm so thrilled to have veteran fashion journalist Cheryl Wischhover here to explain how an item of clothing goes viral (we tackle so many of your specific asks) and how virality, e-commerce, and influencing intertwine. This is an absolutely fascinating ep — I can't wait to hear your thoughts! Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Machine Washable Rugs, Made Better. For a limited time only, our listeners get 10% off + free shipping at tumbleliving.com/CULTURE Ollie. Feed the…

There are eight books in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series, and people have bought fourteen million of them. First published online, then self-published on Amazon, with an audiobook version that people won't shut up about, Dungeon Crawler Carl has become the fantasy phenomenon of the year — and earned the moniker of "the book that all your [dude] friends who don't read are actually reading." I went in skeptical: video game fiction is decidedly not my genre. But there were enough people in the Culture Study universe reading and loving them that I knew there was something going on — with the style, the worldview, the genre play — that would be the makings of a good podcast episode. (I just didn't expect to like it quite as much as I did — as you'll hear in the ep, I'm on now on Book Four!) If you're deep in DCC and want to talk about what works (and doesn't), we go there. If you're mystified by the popularity, we go there too. And we try really, really hard to make this an episode that'll still be interesting to…

Over the last six years, our conversations on Culture Study have often circled back to a handful of recurring themes: contemporary work culture, burnout, optimization culture, intensive parenting, the often hollow pull of the algorithm, the tattered social safety net, and the desire to engage more with the world (and community) around us. We're fun, I promise! And today we're going to weave together so many of those threads in an intricate conversation about the broken promises of convenience culture. Gabe Bullard started writing Against Convenience years before "friction-maxxing" became a thing. He's thought deeply about the bad time bargains of conveniences large and small, and he's spectacularly well-equipped to work through your questions on everything from the tyranny of pre-check, the difficulty of letting go of a lunch-order-habit, and much bigger questions about how convenience culture facilitates our worst forms of individualism. There's so much for us to keep building on in the comments, too, so…

IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE! Conflict happens — and navigating that conflict is essential to a healthy community, a healthy relationship, and a healthy workplace. But so many of us are conflict-adverse (often for good reason). We need better strategies, better paradigms... better fighting advice. Priya Parker, author of the Culture Study foundational text The Art of Gathering, is here to give it to us. We talk about fighting with our parents — especially stubborn parents. We talk about women figuring out their tone and conflict navigation at work (and on Slack!!!). We talk about how to fight when you and your partner have opposite fighting "styles"... and how to fight when you start crying as soon you sense conflict. I often shy away from conversations like these because the advice can feel very theoretical and woo. But there's so much actionable advice packed into this episode — we finished recording and Melody immediately texted me to say wow,…

I love kids. In a different timeline, I'd almost certainly have them. But when I was in my 30s, I looked around — and looked at my own bank account, and the realities of childcare, the weight of my student loans, and how hard people without close family support were working just to get by — and I thought: I can't make this work. And because I didn't even try to have a kid, I didn't have to confront the likelihood of needing fertility treatment to get pregnant in my late 30s. People often say that there's no good time to have a baby, so you should just ignore all the things that make it feel fraught and go for it. You'll make it work. But that argument has begun to feel increasingly out-of-touch. Parenting amidst a polycrisis is really hard. If you've delayed parenthood for whatever reason, getting pregnant — or adopting a child — has become incredibly expensive. Even in countries with robust safety nets, adults are increasingly deprioritizing having kids. In her new book, Anna Louie Sussman takes a…

A man with a fairytale castle in upstate New York who keeps trying to make a self-produced reality show about "princesses" happen — and become a modern-day Hugh Hefner. A man who got famous on YouTube for lawn care who ends up filming himself as a baby — and has a SWAT team called to his house. These stories form the backbone of Jon Ronson's journey into the world of "unraveling men." Those two men's stories are exceptional, but they're also an entry point into a subject area I like to think of as "WTF is going on with dudes right now." Join Jon and me as we avoid the usual discussion about "toxic masculinity" and go deeper into friend-less-ness, algorithms, purposelessness, Sad Dads, and male buffoonery. It's a wild ride that felt like the beginning of a much longer conversation (that I hope we can keep having in the comments)! Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Use code CULTURE at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a free gift with your first purchase! Taking care of your health just got easier – start…

In June, I sent out a Friday Thread prompt that readers had been asking for, in one shape or another, for years: How do we talk about non-romantic breakups? Why do they sting SO MUCH? Why is the vocabulary around a friend breakup so paltry? I know many people found tremendous solace just reading through other people's stories and knowing that 1) friend breakups are part of life and 2) yes, as a culture, we are very bad at acknowledging them let alone grieving them. For this month's subscriber-only bonus episode, Margaret and I decided to do a deep read of the thread — and a deep revisiting of our own friend histories — to talk about different "buckets" of friend breakups, how we process them in the moment and as we age, what facilitates them (bad communication!), and why they're sometimes necessary. Discussed therein: ghosting, sub-tweeting, sucky boyfriends, recurring dreams about long-ago friends, expectation mismatches, friendship promiscuity, the dearth of pop culture representations of (lasting,…

Let's do some HAIR STUDIES! How does blondeness recruit and convey power? When is curly hair a signifier of unruliness — and when does it say Cool Girl? Will we ever be free of the tyranny of the beachy wave? What's the New Karen Cut? Should we talk about Julia Roberts' hair in Pretty Woman for a solid 10 minutes? (Yes!) Sarah Mesle joins the pod to talk about her new book, Tangled: Seven Iconic Moments in White Women's Hair and What They Tell Us About Power, Pleasure, and Complicity, parse "good" blonde dye-jobs, wonder what happened to the Old Lady cut, and answer all of your questions about the politics of white lady hair. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Machine Washable Rugs, Made Better. For a limited time only, our listeners get 10% off + free shipping at tumbleliving.com/CULTURE Use code CULTURE at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a free gift with your first purchase! Get $35 off your first box of wild-caught, sustainable seafood—delivered right to your door. Go to:…

Welcome to the first of our three-part series on BACK TO SCHOOL FASHION, which is really just an excuse for us to talk about style and clothes. Today, the incredible Sophie Strauss — aka, the stylist for regular people — joins us to answer your questions about finding that one piece that will solve all your fashion problems, letting go of the fantasy capsule wardrobe, what you're actually asking when you say "can I pull this off?," and, of course, our most popular question by far: how to figure out your style in your late 30s/40s. Sophie is the ideal Culture Study guest; I can't wait for you to get to know her (and her style philosophy). This is an episode about style that is not meant to make you feel bad about yours — what a revelation! Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/CULTURE Thanks to Article for sponsoring this podcast! Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit ARTICLE.COM/CULTURE and the…

More than a year ago, Melody put a placeholder in our shared podcast planning document: SOMETHING SMART ABOUT AI. We were sick, bored, or frustrated with the way so many podcasts were talking about it — usually because it involved dudes talking with other dudes and universalizing proclamations about whether artificial intelligence was going to usher in an age of utopia (doubtful) or kill us all (doubtful but more probable). We wanted someone willing to get into the gray areas of LLM and chatbot use in particular — someone with real experience with what they can do and real ambivalence about what they do to us. That person is Vauhini Vara, author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, and one of my absolute favorite thinkers working and writing today. In this episode, we talk about how LLMs short circuit the creative process, how they're changing the way students learn to think and discern, the specious argument that AI "democratizes creativity," really bad AI art, and why it's so hard to talk about AI…

Why is Planned Parenthood telling you that you should lift heavy during your menstrual cycle? Why will no one shut up about protein? How many different ways can a company try and convince you it's not a diet when it's TOTALLY A DIET??? How have companies taken advantage of the actual gaps in research on women's bodies to sell us crap? Journalist and elite distance runner Zoë Rom and registered dietitian Kylee Van Horn join the pod to break down how the women's fitness industrial complex convinces us of new health and training vulnerabilities (and then offers their products to fix them). This is one of those episodes that will piss you off and make you feel grateful that others are out here noticing how weird and manipulative these spaces can be. Via the Planned Parenthood Instagram Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Get 15% off OneSkin with the code CULTURE at https://www.oneskin.co/CULTURE Go to https://zbiotics.com/CULTURESTUDY and use CULTURESTUDY at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of…

Two bonus episodes in two weeks, what is even happening! Well, The Odyssey happened — and after reading and writing about Matt Damon for this week's newsletter, I knew I wanted to talk and think more about the adaptation itself. Or, more specifically: the women of The Odyssey and Nolan's struggle to write women in his films. Oh, and their hair, of course — which is why Sarah Mesle, preeminent hair scholar, was the first person I emailed. We have an upcoming episode of the regularly scheduled pod with Sarah all about her forthcoming book Tangled: Seven Iconic Moments in White Women's Hair and What They Tell Us About Power, Pleasure, and Complicity, but for now, enjoy as we talk about Calypso's balayage, what Circe's hair could've (and should've) done, how Nolan created a world without female armpits, and so much more. Just remember these bonus episodes are a bit more off-the-cuff and unpolished — we think of them as the beginning of a conversation, not the end. So let's continue in the comments! (And if you'd…

I have aspired to be like Lindsay Crouse — professionally and personally — since the first time I figured out who she was. Killing it as an editor and writer at the New York Times opinion section. Absolutely wrecking expectations about how fast women in their 30s can be (re: running). If you're a high-achiever millennial, she was living that that life we all dreamed of. Then a bunch of things in her life changed (I won't spoil them entirely here, but yes they involve difficult pregnancies and difficult physical recoveries) and she quit a bunch of things — and then wrote a book about quitting. In this episode, we have a wide-ranging conversation about what keeps us from quitting (especially but not uniquely high-achieving eldest daughters), who has the privilege to quit, and the actual science around quitting (and why most people should quit far earlier than they think). We recorded this conversation two weeks ago, and I'm still rolling it over in my head — I think it'll have a similar effect on you. Thanks…

Bonus eps are when we go deep on a cultural phenomenon, text, or celebrity that's overwhelming our feeds, charming our pants off, sparking general bewilderment, or, in this case, making us think long and hard about a text. When Vulture critic Kathryn VanArendonk texted Margaret to report that the new "woke" (don't worry, we discuss this designation at length) Little House on the Prairie was actually pretty good... I have to admit, I was dubious. HOW. HOW COULD THIS BLATANTLY RACIST AGAINST NATIVES, this deeply engaged in MANIFEST DESTINY INDIVIDUALISM story be... good? Worthwhile? Useful? Yes, I devoured this whole series as a kid. But an adaptation now? I was envisioning Yellowstone for elementary students. But listen: this Little House is doing something pretty interesting. It's not always successful. But you're going to have to listen to the episode to hear why. (Side note: Even if you haven't watched it and/or have no plans to, there's so much to think about re: adaptations and how to talk about this…

IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE! Are you struggling to figure out the joys of your new home? Do you keep comparing it to a city you fell deeply in love with before? Maybe you're visiting a new city soon and just want tips on how best to appreciate its pleasures. Lilah Raptopoulos has spent so much time in her personal and professional life amassing tips on how to fall in love with a city — and this conversation is such a font of wisdom (about tourism, about living), with a ton of small, mid-size, and under-appreciated city boosterism. We talk about a bunch of US cities — but also a bunch of cities all over the world. I already know the comments on this one are gonna rule. An aerial view of Cadiz, Spain (Marco Bottigelli, Getty Images) Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Thanks to Article for sponsoring this podcast! Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit ARTICLE.COM/CULTURE and the…

There are few things I like to do more than argue about the fine gradations of Who Is A Star Today And Why. I love the categorization element (what's the difference between a heartthrob and a sex symbol??) but I especially love thinking about what the actors we designate as heartthrobs tell us about our current understandings of masculinity. Is Pedro Pascal a heartthrob or a boyfriend? Is Leonardo DiCaprio the Eternal Heartthrob? Are the stars of Heated Rivalry the Official Heartthrobs of 2026? Do our heartthrobs age with us, or are they eternally 22? Romance author and male celeb aficionado Adib Khorram joins me to work through all of the above and so much more. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party (via Getty) Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Make the switch to Blueland today and get 15% off your first order by going to Blueland.com/CULTURE Get 40% off select Lola Blankets products at Lolablankets.com by using code CULTURE at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket…

Whatever your relationship is with your parents — incredibly close, estranged, somewhere in-between — there's just so much to handle when one of them dies. It doesn't matter if the death was sudden or a long time coming, our reticence to deal with (or even talk about) the postscripts of our lives leaves people scrambling, untangling, and slamming up against walls of legal bureaucracy. So we wanted to talk to someone who's been through it — and has accumulated a deep well of knowledge about preparing for these scenarios and navigating them when they've arrived. Certified death doula Becky Robinson offers deeply practical advice that's also filled with compassion — and I know we'll continue to build on her advice in the comments. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Taking care of your health just got easier – start here with Zocdoc: https://zocdoc.com/CULTURE Thanks to Article for sponsoring this podcast! Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit…

We love our boomer moms. And our boomer moms are complicated. When Tracy Clark-Flory first told me about her memoir — in which she discovers the half-sister her mother had at age 19, and was forced to give up for adoption — I immediately thought about how so many of our boomer moms' choices were limited in ways we struggle to imagine. No matter how feminist their current politics may be, it doesn't change the fact that so many of them grew up (and became adults) in deeply patriarchal, racist, restrictive, and incredibly anti-sex families and communities. So in this episode, Tracy and I work to activate some deep empathy for boomer moms just generally — but we're also very real about how some of the patterns they couldn't escape have affected their children. We talk about boomer moms who loathe feminism, who've dealt with un-present partners, who struggle with bitterness, who reproduce the criticalness of their own parents, and who really, really want to give gifts. The goal for this episode is empathy that…

FIRST THINGS FIRST: IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE! Dark Academia is a literary genre. Dark Academia is an aesthetic. Dark Academia is a fantasy space. Or maybe Dark Academia is kind of a overgeneralizing label that few authors actually embrace. That's what R.F. Kuang, author of Babel and Katabasis thinks — and having her on the pod to talk about the trappings of the genre made for a fascinating discussion. We talk about the rise of genre right now, whether it subverts or reinforces the world it depicts, why State School Dark Academia doesn't really exist, and of course race, class, and the ideologies fantasy allows us to explore (and explode), just generally. Come hang out in R.F. Kuang's brilliant mind!! Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Ready to upgrade your eyewear to something functional, fashionable, fun, and affordable? Head to goodr.com/CULTURE to claim $10 off your first order. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code CULTURE at…

FIRST THINGS FIRST: IF YOU NEED HELP ADDING YOUR SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FEED TO YOUR PODCAST PLAYER, JUST CLICK HERE! When people around my age tell me that no one else their age has time to hang out, I have a go-to response: you need intergenerational friends! Older friends, younger friends, friends at a different (and often more flexible) life stage than you — it rules. I cherish my intergenerational friendships, and I'm thrilled to have Pulitzer Prize winner Andrew Sean Greer on the pod to talk about the legendary intergenerational friendship that inspired his new novel, Villa Coco, and help answer all your questions on cultivating these relationships in your own life. This episode will make you grateful for your existing age-spanning friendships and get you excited to make many, many more. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Ollie. Feed the Obsession. Go to ollie.com/culture and use code CULTURE to get 70% off your first box! Wake up with clearer skin, smoother hair, and cooler sleep. Use code CULTUREPOD…

Bonus eps are when we go deep on a cultural phenomenon, text, or celebrity that's overwhelming our feeds, charming our pants off, or sparking general bewilderment. Off Campus does all three! It's a new, eight-episode hockey romance now airing on Amazon and it manages to be intermittently corny, incredibly hot, ostensibly very straight (but arguably made for the bisexual-gaze) and... does a pretty excellent job of handling of storylines involving sexual assault and physical abuse?? A wonder, truly. For the first half of the episode, we talk about the series in general: what it's about, where it's set, its worldview and understanding of romance. We talk about the basics of the plot but avoid major spoilers. Then we get detailed. We talk about bra fit. We talk about specific needle drops. We discuss what makes that scene so hot — and the way the show handles trauma and consent. If you haven't watched, I hope this ep compels you to give Off Campus a try... and if you have, WE HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.…

I LOVE IRISH LITERATURE. And like so many of you, I love the work of Maggie O'Farrell – so when I heard her new book was very Irish (set in the aftermath of The Great Hunger in the late 19th century) I wondered if she'd be willing to come on the pod to do one of our favorite things here on Culture Study: offer very specific book recommendations. Stay tuned for a delightful conversation that will add a solid half dozen books to your TBR list. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Go to https://zbiotics.com/CULTURESTUDY and use CULTURESTUDY at checkout for 15% off any first time orders of ZBiotics probiotics. Use code CULTURE at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a free gift with your first purchase! Thanks to Article for sponsoring this podcast! If you’re in the market for a beautiful new sofa, dining table or bed, head over to https://www.article.com/ Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to Zocdoc.com/CULTURE to find and instantly book a doctor you love today. Show Notes: You can buy Maggie…

I grew up going to all manner of camps: church camp, science camp, French camp, cheerleading camp... if there was a way for me to be away from home (and have a fun packing list), I took it. I loved the freedoms and rituals of camp, the goofy, cool counselors who felt like visions of my potential future, and the cachet that accumulated with each passing summer. Camp was a place where I could be a different person, or at least a better, more likable one. I thought I was a camp person. But when I reached adulthood, I realized my camp-ness was nothing in comparison to the people whose families had dedicated their kids' summers to one camp... for decades. That's what Camp Mystic was — and still is — for thousands of former campers. So when a flash flood last July took the lives of 28 Mystic campers, questions about the future of the camp also became questions about the future of that identity. Kerry Howley spent six months reporting a stunning feature for New York Magazine on the aftermath of the Mystic flood.…

This episode is juicy, and it does have gossip — but I admit that it's actually less about specific juicy gossip and more about why we love juicy gossip... gossip about celebrities, gossip about extended family, gossip about our coworkers and frenemies and reality stars and even random people involved in high drama. We love reading gossip, whispering gossip, talking shit about people who gossip too much (or not enough)... gossip is a primary means of making sense of the world, and we should all talk (and think) about it more. Nichole Hill, host of the fantastic podcast Our Ancestors Were Messy, joins me to do just that. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode! Get 40% off select Lola Blankets products at Lolablankets.com by using code CULTURE at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets. Thanks to Article for sponsoring this podcast! If you’re in the market for a beautiful new sofa, dining table or bed, head over to https://www.article.com/ Get 15% off OneSkin with the code CULTURE at…

This one's a classic Culture Study ep. We've got a return Culture Study guest, Sara Petersen, talking about a recurring Culture Study topic: WTF is going on with the momfluencers? Because when we talk about momfluencers, we're obviously also always talking about the ways we want motherhood to be performed in public... and how we also want/crave/need to police that performance. How are today's up-and-coming (and old school and tired) momfluencers managing politics, MAHA, privacy, and the constant demand for more reels? What is it about these accounts that always make "family" feel like a conservative project? And what's going on with the Canva-style checklists for "how to visit my newborn baby"??? We have SO much to talk about. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode! Get 15% off your first order of cleaning products at Blueland.com/CULTURE Machine Washable Rugs, Made Better. For a limited time only, our listeners get 10% off + free shipping at Tumbleliving.com/CULTURE Wake up with clearer skin, smoother…

This episode is just satisfying. I've heard from so many of you about how to deal with accumulated stuff. Not just accumulated linens, or too many hair products, but stuff with emotions attached: stuff that's been directed your way (with great import) from relatives, stuff you're trying to sift through when a parent died unexpectedly, or just artifacts from the last few decades of your life that you feel like you should keep (but definitely don't want to, or have space to). Professional organizer (and Culture Study reader) Tara Bremer joins the pod to grapple with so many of your complicated questions, like: What do I do with (very old) photo albums? Like, from the early 1900s? We moved into my Grandparents house and now we have to figure out what to do with boxes and BOXES of old history/Catholic theology books WTF do I do with my My Little Sisters' Vacuum-Sealed Cabbage Patch Dolls WHAT DO WE DO WITH ALL THE CHINA How to subtly tease the messaging between "I don't want this many things in my house" vs. "I…

In today's BIG MARGARET ANNOUNCEMENT, we mentioned that we'll be doing (consistent) monthly bonus episodes from here on out — and here's the first one! It's part of an ongoing series that we're either calling 1) Late to the Party or 2) Cool Takes, in which we arrive a few weeks late to whatever cultural text is dominating the discourse (because that's when most of us have actually found the time to watch/listen/read/whatever). This month, we're talking about Season Two of The Pitt, which also means we're talking about melodrama, medical procedurals, the hottest doctor, what it was like for Margaret to binge both seasons to prep for this ep, whether the show knows Dr. Robby is a dick (yes) and whether the show is also teeing us up for the Night Shift in Season Three (yes). There's obviously a lot here for anyone who watches the show — but we purposefully crafted this ep to focus on larger questions of what makes a television show effective right now. Can't wait for alllllll your thoughts on this one. If you'd…

Weddings are such a rich text. Maybe the richest text? At least how they're performed today, at the intersection of conspicuous consumption and cultural capital. What do your wedding favors say about you? What about your cell-phone policy? The number of times you post your wedding photos? If you have three separate wedding outfits, is that extra? But is just one... not enough? And if people talk so much shit about weddings (going to them, paying for them, planning them) why don't we just get married like it's 1962? Amanda Montell — author of The Age of Magical Overthinking and architect of an extremely extra wedding — joins the pod to unpack wedding culture's turn towards content creation (with a bunch of bonus talk about how to do what actually feels right for you). What a wacky, joyful, yet still classically Culture Study ep! Via Pinterest, of course Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode! Take the Hormonal Life Stage Quiz and get 32% off your first purchase at Biologica.com/CULTURE Treat yourself to…

When we wax poetic about the wonders of 2007 and 2008... what are we actually yearning for? Serendipity? Hope? The as-yet uncompromised belief that the arc of history bends toward justice? Or maybe just... a world without smartphones? Atlantic writer and bestselling novelist Xochitl Gonzalez joins the pod to talk about what it felt like to be at the epicenter of 2007/2008 nostalgia, and how it created the perfect backdrop for her take on very Brooklyn Great Gatsby. This was such a dynamic discussion, filled with tangents and joy and trying to parse the contradiction of feeling nostalgia for an era that objectively sucked... but also generated a feeling of optimism and possibility that many of us have not felt since. I can't wait for the discussion on this one. Brooklyn October 2008 (Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode! Get $25 off the best-selling Carver Mat frame with code CULTURE at auraframes.com/culture If you're in the market for a beautiful new sofa, dining table, or…

Did you see the stat from last week that the U.S. could've fully funded universal daycare for two million children... using the money spent on the War on Iran (only leading up to the ceasefire)? Do you look at the billions spent on ICE enforcement and think: my federal taxes are funding this? Are you super annoyed that only the rich get praised for "tax loopholes" — while the poor get told they're freeloaders? And what about billionaires bragging about not paying taxes? So many of you have asked for a sharp conversation about the morality and civic duty of taxes and money, and I'm thrilled to have sociologist Ruth Braunstein — whose new book is about these very questions — on the show to answer all of your deep and difficult questions. This one's a just trust me: you might not think you're that interested in the morality of taxes, but this conversation will stick with you for days. Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode! Wake up with clearer skin, smoother hair, and cooler sleep. Use code CULTUREPOD for…

When we recorded this episode two weeks ago, we knew that the Supreme Court was planning on releasing a judgment in Chiles v. Salazar — to decide whether Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy (which is similar to laws in 22 other states) likely violated the First Amendment. We thought the decision might come in June. But it fell last week like a hammer, and has the potential to undo years of advocacy to ban treatments that have tried to "ungay" thousands of kids, teens, and adults. The judgment is devastating. But it also reminds us that just because a treatment is "legal" doesn't mean it's ethical — or even that it works. (It doesn't!) Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez endured years of conversion therapy, and joins the pod to talk about the real psychological harms it inflicts, and answer all of your excellent questions about how to spot a therapist using low-key conversion tactics, how to make sure kids growing up in high-control anti-gay environments know you're a safe person, and why this therapy persists…

The future of the chain restaurant is... chicken? I learned so much from this conversation with food systems (and chain restaurant) expert Austin Frerick — from how Sysco maintains its restaurant supremacy (and what Sysco "tastes" like) to which chain restaurants have significantly changed in quality (Wendy's) and are on the verge of extinction (also Wendy's). Did you know what makes a chain restaurant resistant to suckage? The answer will and will not surprise you! This was such a fun, enlightening conversation — the sort that you'll think about every time you eat in or drive past a chain restaurant — and does exactly what we always hope for a Culture Study episode: it'll make you think a lot more about the (very everyday, very unassuming) world around you. Enjoy! GREAT NEWS: WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod — just come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber or listening to the ads…

Did you get into gaming as an adult? Did you come back to gaming as an adult? Or, like me, did you savage people on Bubble Bobble in the early '90s... and are trying to figure out how to reproduce that feeling as an adult? Or maybe you're gaming-curious... but can't shake the feeling that gaming is a waste of time (and/or associate it with POS ex-boyfriends). Keza MacDonald, gaming critic for The Guardian and author of a stunning new book on the history of Nintendo, is here to field all your questions: about those dude-gaming stereotypes, about gaming as "unproductive"... but also what sort of new games you should be playing (based on what you already play and love). Melody came to gaming as an adult and says THIS EPISODE IS SO GOOD, and I'm still trying to figure out my way there and also say THIS EPISODE IS SO GOOD. Wherever you are in your gaming journey, you're gonna love Keza and love this conversation. And if you want Keza's expert recommendations for games, you'll definitely want to become a paid…

It's the second coming of Hilary Duff... but real ones know she never went anywhere. This week we're so lucky to have Allie Jones — author of the superb Gossip Time newsletter and Hilary Duff superfan — on the show to answer all your questions about how Duff managed to avoid her peers' timeline, her professionalism, her relatable lack of stage presence, and the crafting of her millennial mom image. (Melody fans will also appreciate her appearances in this episode touting bottomless Duff knowledge). If you want the podcast equivalent of going to the mall in 2005 and walking around doing nothing but somehow having a great time, this ep is for you. GREAT NEWS: WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod — just come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber or listening to the ads that make this model possible!If you're a paid subscriber and haven't yet set up your subscriber RSS feed in your podcast…

Free Yourself from the Tyranny of the Automobile!! That's the subtitle of the new book Life After Cars, written by the hosts of the popular podcast "War On Cars." And listen, I am 100% on board: this quasi-hippy spent most of her 20s trekking around college towns on a crappy commuter bike. But like a lot of you, I also live in a place where the infrastructure has refused to catch up to my desire to have fewer cars on the road. So here's what I absolutely loved about this conversation: we talked at length about all the ways that cars make our lives worse... and also talked about the ways that we need them (particularly in rural areas) and the movement they afford people whose freedoms are otherwise circumscribed. There is absolutely nothing fixed about our current car-contingent culture, and Sarah and Doug were so good at fostering a funny (and super smart) conversation about what sucks, what doesn't have to suck, and places that are working to make it suck less. This was one of those eps were Melody and I…

When I first came up for the idea for the Culture Study Romance Book Club back in January, I knew I wanted every edition to have two books: one contemporary, and one historical. Part of this desire was selfish (I personally gravitate towards historicals) but I also wanted to explore the contrast between what you can do with a romance set in the past (with its particular confines) and one set in the present (with seemingly none, but actually so many). I also knew that I wanted to start with M/M romances (hi, Heated Rivalry) and that Melody had sung the very loud praises of renowned historical queer romance author Cat Sebastian's mid-century queer romance — particularly You Should Be So Lucky, which managed to combine baseball (one of Melody's true loves) with romance (Melody's secondary love). And listeners, I hope this is clear: when it comes to so many things, but romance in particular, I listen to Melody! And when Melody asked if we should try and get Cat on the pod, I said "obvi please try." AND THEN SHE…

Baby names are in inexhaustible cultural text. They're a way to talk about class, race, and gender, of course — but also the way we perform familial respect and coherence. In this episode, sociologist Hannah Emery — who wrote her dissertation on baby names — joins us to talk about the history of baby names, how naming conventions and aspirations have changed over the last century, and the broad and specific requests parents bring to her as a naming consultant. It's all fascinating — and I can't wait to continue the conversation (about our names and the names of the children in our lives) in the comments. AND GREAT NEWS: WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod, so you just have to be a little patient and then come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber or listening to the ads that make this model possible!If you're a paid subscriber and haven't yet set up your subscriber RSS feed in your…

Unstructured conversation! Teenage Feelings! Flesh walls! Abjection! Jacob Elordi's Jacob Elordi-ness! Arguments about the purpose of adaptation! THE GREAT AND VERY SMART MARGARET WILLISON! This bonus episode's got it all. So listen on as three English Majors with various levels of affection for the source text talk about horny aspic, the melodramatic imagination, Romeo + Juliet, pseudo race-blind casting, the 2005 Pride & Prejudice, and whether director Emerald Fennell is enough of a perv (no). Even if you haven't seen Wuthering Heights, this is a much larger conversation about adaptation, contemporary film, casting, the feelings we're looking for when we go to the movies, and much more. And if you have seen it, wow do we have more to talk about in the comments. So enjoy this bonus episode — and tell us what bonus episodes (with similar, loose-but-text-based-focus) you'd like to see in the future! (And if you'd like access to this paid podcast-subscriber-only episode, you can upgrade your Culture Study…

I've written a bunch of mildly serious stuff about having BIG NO-KIDS ENERGY. I've talked with so many others — and published interviews with them! — about how they've negotiated conversations with others about not having kids, leaned in to the expansiveness of their no-kids lives, and figured out their own life priorities when they're not what society tells you they should be. But all of these conversations have been pretty, well, serious. But not having kids can be many things. More specifically, not having kids can be hilarious. Today, comedian (and not-kid-haver) Natasha Vaynblat joins the pod to answer all your questions about the awkward, unconsciously ridiculous, and straight-up offensive questions that people ask when you don't have kids — and how to figure out how to answer (sometimes seriously, sometimes with a sense of humor). I don't think any Culture Study guest has made me spit out my water as much as Natasha, so regardless of whether you don't have kids and relate immediately or DO have kids…

Why is weird spelled like that? Why is yacht pronounced like that? Why is a firefighter a person who fights fires... but a pickpocket is neither a pick nor a pocket? We're so lucky to have linguist Colin Gorrie on the pod to talk about the "disaster" of English spelling and the history you can unearth in pretty much every English word. This one's such a nerdy delight — if you found yourself enraptured by our episode on accents, you're gonna love this one, too. AND GREAT NEWS: WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod, so you just have to be a little patient and then come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber or listening to the ads that make this model possible!If you're a paid subscriber and haven't yet set up your subscriber RSS feed in your podcast player, here's the EXTREMELY easy how-to .And if you're having any other issues with your Patreon subscription — please get in touch! Email me…

What happens when the "move fast and break things" start-up philosophy comes for infertility treatments? Exactly what you'd expect: cut corners, bad service, aesthetically pleasing offices that can't seem to stop churning staff, upsells backed by dubious science, and more. This week, journalist Jackie Davalos joins the pod to talk about her reporting on IVF start-up Kindbody, breaking down why so many of these women's health start-ups give us the ick... and also answer all your questions about sketchy IVF business practices. I cannot tell you how much I learned from this episode — and how wild it is to have this corner of health care remain this unregulated. If you're not in the right place to listen to other people's complications with IVF, feel free to skip this episode — but if you want to get pissed about how difficult, weird, and opaque the process can be, definitely listen to this episode. Finally, a special thanks to Culture Study reader & listener Shawn Wen for making this episode happen. AND GREAT…

How does an audiobook narrator know how to pronounce everything? Do they have editors? How many books can they do a year? What differentiates the live voice from AI — and how do they get paid (vs. how should they get paid)? And why are so many beloved books read by Julia Whelan? WELP, FRIENDS, GOOD NEWS, WE GOT JULIA WHELAN TO COME ANSWER ALL THESE QUESTIONS. This is a conversation about mechanics and production flows and vocal health... but it's also a conversation about how we conceive of and compensate artistic labor. This one's gonna stick with you — it's certainly stuck with me. AND GREAT NEWS: WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODE TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod, so you just have to be a little patient and then come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber or listening to the ads that make this model possible!If you're a paid subscriber and haven't yet set up your subscriber RSS feed in your podcast player, here's the…

If you don't make your living creating content online, you probably think of yourself as the furthest thing from an influencer — a designation that has developed the same slightly dirty connotation as being a celebrity, especially a celebrity like Paris Hilton, back in the 1990s. But influencers have cultivated and refined a mode of existing online that has filtered down into the way so many of us navigate online spaces: in the way you craft your profile on LinkedIn, in your font choice for a pic of your houseplant on IG, in the TikTok your coworker cajoles you into making on a slow day at work. The subtle way that influencer vernacular has entered our lives.....that's INFLUENCER CREEP. Sophie Bishop coined the term to talk about the ways that influencer behaviors (specifically: self-branding, performance of authenticity, constant optimization) were codifying and re-setting online norms, and joins me to answer all your typically excellent (and complicated) questions about the performance of self and work…

"Family-friendly society" sounds SO BORING but listen: it's what we all want. It's what singles and elders want, it's what parents and partnered people without kids want, it's what KIDS WANT. A society that takes all of us — and our needs and capacities — seriously?? That considers all of us, in whatever scenario we find ourselves, AS A FAMILY? When we announced that we were doing this episode, we got a ton of questions asking us to also consider people who weren't parents in their 30s and 40s, and yes, of course, team, I would never approach this topic without thinking expansively about it — as in, expansively enough to include me, and our beloved co-producer Melody, and all of our various family configurations. I would only do an episode with expansive questions like yours with someone (with tremendously policy experience) who understands "family-friendly" expansively. So listen in as Elliot Haspel and I imagine a better (and possible!) family-friendly world.AND GREAT NEWS: WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODE…

This episode is the result of years of listener requests: how did dating get SO bad, and how can we possibly make it better? Melody and I have been out of the dating game for a hot minute, but we knew that the combination of your excellent questions + an excellent co-host [Jonquilyn Hill, host of Vox's Explain It All who is, importantly, currently dating] + sociological discussion of how dating has historically functioned (and why it no longer functions that way) could lead us to something that manages to be at once cathartic and hopeful (and educational for anyone who hasn't tried to date in the last decade). We answer your questions on "informational intimacy," how long is too long to chat (before setting an actual date), optimization culture, and whether or not it's weird for someone to run your Hinge account (I LOVE THIS QUESTION).....plus bonus content on how to actually meet people off the apps. You don't have to be dating to love this episode, but if you are — let's go after it in the comments. AND…

Is there something in your life that you do — with some sort of regularity, and without direct compensation — that you find tremendously satisfying? Something you do just because you like it? CONGRATS, YOU HAVE A HOBBY. And here at Culture Study, we love to talk about hobbies — how to find them, how to keep them, and how to deal with the seemingly ceaseless push to monetize them. Listeners have been asking for a hobby episode for years, so for the New Year, we asked two great hobbyists — Doree Shafrir and Elise Hu, of the beloved podcast Forever35 — to come on and answer all your hobby questions, including: How do I find time to hobby when I'm a parent? How do I figure out my hobbies now that I finally have time to myself? How do I keep myself from BUYING ALL THE STUFF every time I find a new hobby? How do I keep a hobby from becoming a chore? We can't wait to hear your own thoughts on these questions in the comments. ALSO GUESS WHAT, WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODES TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours…

It's BONUS EPISODE TIME! While everyone else is listing their favorite movies and albums and television shows in their end-of-year wrap-ups, Melody and I opted to make up random (but wonderful) categories and force the other person to come up answers. Favorite Internet Dog! TikTok that made you cry! Best Practical Thing You Bought Yourself + Best Extravagant Thing! There's a lot more but I won't spoil them for you other than to say if you need a little very low stakes delight in your life right now, this episode is for you. And free subscribers — I realize sending this to you is a total tease, but maybe also incentive to become a paid subscriber and join in the deeper levels of weirdness. You get ad-free episodes, the bonus advice-time segment every week, and these bonus episodes, which come out every 2-3 months. Just click here to become a paid subscriber.And a reminder, we're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:'90s Movie SoundtracksHow we think about the morality of money and…

I don't remember when I first noticed Eldest Daughter content popping up in my various social media feeds, but like so many millennials, I loved a meme that seemed to REALLY SEE ME. Why yes, I am a consummate planner who somehow holds at least six people's yearly calendars in my head at once! Why yes, I am a perfectionist! WHY YES, I AM AN ELDEST DAUGHTER!Does Eldest Daughter discourse give Eldest Daughters a means to communicate their (sometimes contradictory) feelings about their familial and societal roles? Or is it a way for Eldest Daughters to lean into their own martyrdom complexes? And how does being the immigrant eldest daughter compound your Eldest Daughter-ness? We got Eldest Daughter Ifeoma Ozoma to come on the show and help me (Eldest Daughter) and Melody (also Eldest Daughter, duh) answer all your questions — and work through our own changing relationship to the Eldest Daughter Discourse. (And yes, there's a reason this one's coming out during the holidays, the best/worst time to be an Eldest…

Sometimes I wish I could just have the intro paragraph to an episode be GAAHHHHHHH THIS ONE WAS SO FUN! So this is my version of that: telling you that I wish it could be that, and then also telling you that we go deep on so many components of the global spread (and embrace) of Korean pop culture. We go into the calculated political elements, the uncanny elision of North Korean stories, and why so many of the Korean narratives resonating with American audiences are ones crafted by Korean-Americans. This is a really effusive and loving episode that also manages to have some very real talk about why kids dressing up as characters from K-Pop Demon Hunters is not yellow face. IT'S SO GOOD, and I know we're gonna have a great discussion about it. ALSO GUESS WHAT, WE HAVE VERY GOOD EPISODES TRANSCRIPTS NOW! They come out within 24 hours of the pod, so you just have to be a little patient and then come back and click here. We pay an actual human for help with these, so thank you for either being a paid subscriber…